Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1887-01-15
PfNNSYLvANIA LABOR.
= anssY OsOA0s sAYS OF SsB
srASB,s sROsfCONlN0s.
ovisw b. tire Ersrsniss Of the Conditions
Z r,esssry I'm the Cssi snd lron Countiss'
9ss wssss Paid Minors, and the Re.
,ees,u Of . Tsrin 20 Labor
:. a.or.s IN sor,b American Review.

0eorRe IN North American heNleNs
zHDonomicslly, Pennsylvania IL most IN
5alins state, and would we'll repay com.
rhensive examination Of the conditions OF
4 ~ IN its varied Industries For this how
~, cannot now spare time. In three pre-
srnf1lng papers have given some idea OF tne
Editions Of labor In the largest Oh the IN
z(uoesies for which Pennsylvania IL noted
4 :IHat Of coal mining. From this the condrnon
4s labor generally may be inierfeo, anu rns
|1nt1lity of that policy OF "protection 10 lauor,
~ which PennsylvaDa has peen 80 @ c,n |
4 oeoua may be readily eeen. The condiuon |
~ the coal miners In the much protec.eu
Gonss Of Pennsylvania is bad enough. let
tSd - Il is It In evident that 1t would pe |
n VNorpo but for the miners associations backed
~ etrikes or the fear of strikes Whomso.
i oSer the tariff may protect II does not pro
!, tot the coal miners. AS for iron mining,
another petted Industry Of Pennsy lvania,
1he protection Of which, directly and inoi
roetly, imposes the most enormous burden |
NOON the Industries Of the whole country,
wages are in that even below those OF coal
mining, tor the reason that there is less com
bination among the miners. In Lehigh,
X a Northampton and In Berks, according 10
the reports made by employers to the bureau
& industrial statistics, iron miners are work
3 ing for 20 cents q day and engineers Tor 50
md 80 cents. In other counties the rate
rises to rs cents, 50 cents, 80 cents
s md 81 per day for minsrs ana
ocerespondingy for engineers But these
wages, 1t must always be remembered, 90
not secure steady work. or the returns
& have noted the highest number of days
worked In the year Is 265-a case OF which ~
cents day we're paid miners In anotner
cnse in which miners wages are placed at 20
ceuts the number of days worked Is ln
Carnegie Brothers & Co, who have been
1protectedu into enormous fortunes by the
tariff, and who are really generous men, pay
4 their miners 81 10 to sLl per day. but
should "Triumphant Democracy" point TO
this with pride it should add that in the year
xnrS Svb
negie miners had only ll9 days work.
THE GREAT CORNWALL MINE.
The highest wages paid in iron mining ap.
pears to be in the Cornwall mine, in Lebanon
county, where miners get 81 40 per day.
These exceptionally high wages seem to be
attributable to the liberality OF the managing
owner. But what, in the face OF such q oe-
p0sit OF ore as this becomes OF the contention
that q heavy duty on iron and iron. ore
II necessary TO prevent the suppression OF the
\ Pennsvlvanis iron industry by the compeu
sion of the pauper.msde iron OF Europe
and years before we had any duty upon iron
and iron ore. 1t could not OF course, De
worked If the Colemsns aud Grubos chose to
ehut IL up, as the eccentric proprietor oil an
Iron mine near Edinburgh chose to do with
his mine some years since, answering al
remonstrance as to the destruction oi a con
siderable industry, and the starving out OF
cOnsideraole population, with the laconlc 90
Aervation that the ore in the ground Nigh
stay there, since it would "not eat anything
But with the permission OF the Soleman'
and Grubos this rich iron deposit couio o.
worked, not only If there were no duty oil
iron, but If the "pauper" iron-ore producer'
OF Europe would work for nothing and pay
their own board. 1t came out Ia legal pro
ceediugs taken in about 1859 to determine
whether the right reserved to Is much ore a
would FEED one furnace applied 10 such afur
mace as was In use in the last century, or TO
modern furnace that the cost of mining or
i'll Ill ,i,- .sa ION
to say nothing of the superior quality OF III
ere, is much less than the transportation o
& European ore would cost Ii Is not prooabl
that single additional ton of iron ore ha
been mined at Cornwall because OF our tariff
II the tariff has had any effect II has slmpl,
# been to increase the profits of the Cornwall
owners, aud not in the slightest degree to ado
TO the wages which they must pay their men
II as a matter of fact they do pay more thai
current wages II is because OF their own lib
erahty. Mr. q W. Childs also paws NOR
than current wages, but his business Is un
protecled by tho tariff.
GRIEVANCES AS TO COAL.
So, too, it is with the duty on coal. Thi
duty is a grieYous burden upon the indus
tries of California, the Gulf states and som
parts OF New England, and gives protectio
70 the monopolies which largely neutrsli7
the natural ad vsntages Of Philadelphia as
manufacturing city by compelling her peopl
r-- 10 pay a considerably higher price for COS
Philadelphia whsTves. But isS benefits, sue
- ihey are, cerlsiDly do not go ellier to 10
miners to their immediate employers, tn
coal operators Ifany one at all II benz ettte
Il is the owners OF coal land and the monopC
lists of transportation. The competuo
which would force the wages Of miners dow
TO point that would give them only bar
subsistence is only held in check by miner
combinations and strikes, bitter struggles c
endurance, not always entirely blood less
which entail almost ss much loss and suffei
49, ing actual warfare, and which, under th
pressure OF necessity, are fought with sue
Il tenacity that tnd in the recent number c
the Coal and Trade Journal a statemen
made as cool matter Of business Information
thst at the conclusion of a recent strike, nea
Reynold-ville, the miners were in such r,
p duc6d condition physically, Tor want {
proper food, that they could not perform
= days work for some time No matter wht
the profits OF coal mining may be, II is ev
dent that under what We call the free compt
tition of LABOR aud capital they cannot, 10
any length of time, 60 either to miners or I
operators, but at length must be taken u
In the royalties paid tor the privileges OF min
ing coal and in the increased values OF cos
lands The royalty now paid in the anthrt
cite district ranges from 40 to 60 cents per tor
and will probably average so cents, an
where mines are worked by the owners, as
N the case with The mines owned by the gre
railroad companies, the royalty, whatever
may be, goes, of course, to the credit OF Il
capital invested in the purchase OF the mine
no that the effect of the duty, whatever
may be, Is not TO beneht the miner or Il
operator, who il his immediate employe
b0t-~erely to increase the charge which Ii
owner of coal land can make for the use
the natural agent of prOduction-the coal iu
bodded in the soil by the slow process
nature ages and ages before man came upo
the earth, and which would exist with all Il
usefulness unimpaired whether the ownt
could get any royalty or not or whetht
there was any individual owner or not
WAGES IN PENNSYLVANIA.
There Is, OF course, in Pennsyl ylvsnis, VIII
may be called a general level of wages, ju
As there is general level OF water In Il
ocean, even when its pillows heave in slor
"a line, theoretically it may be, towai
which both depression and elevation tend
return /; but this fact OF itself proves the 4
tllity OF the tariff in raising wages. Even
Pennsylvania the largest single industry
the agricultural, and the industries for whic
any preiense OF protection by the tariff ca
be made amount TO only small part OF II
% total Industries, since maniiestiy not only ii
agricultural Industry but all such industrit
as building, railrOsding, etc cannot be pr,
t6cted by any tariff. The level OF wag 8 in an
n particular occupation can, therefore, no ma
ter how high the tariff, only be raised abov
the general level by conditions, natural Q
VI, artificial, which in them check the com pet
tion for employment. And ths same la,
muAt apply 10 the profits OF capital, no that
~ impossible tor any amount of protection
" 70 permanently increase wages, or TO aug
meut the profits of the man A ntarturar or omar